Quote Originally Posted by entheomation
A friend of mine who is a completely new smoker had purchased a few cigars from a shop up in Olathe KS after I had expressed to him my new found love to cigars.. One of the sticks he purchased was a montecristo and he informed me that they were indeed spectacular. I finally convinced myself to blow a few extra bucks and try one out, although I dont recall which one it was so i'll have to look through my archive. (my 3ringnotebook where I document my smokes and tape the band on, i know theres got to be a better way of doing this so I may do a search to see how others document their smokes and store their bands, I was thinking about a laminator.. anyways back on topic). The cigar was very good and it seemed to be very smooth and mild to medium bodied. It cost around 8-9 bones and was about the smallest one next to the petite ones in the tins/small boxes...

I dont think ive ever seen a montecristo with a maduro wrapper, do they roll any in that fashion? (UTFSE!! I know I know, im a newbie) Sorry, Padron my French err Pardon(sp) heh i wonder how many times thats been told.. what about, Perdoma my french, .. ill stop.

Montecristo does have cigars in a maduro wrapper, although they are not easy to find. They are a nice cigar, but nothing to write home to mom about (the ones I've had are a little bit tight in the draw - probably due to the smaller ring gauge).

Montecristo's tend to be a little bit on the pricey side. They are nice, but I don't know if they deserve the price, even though I find myself buying them from time to time.

You mention Padron (by accident or on purpose) - they are nice cigars, especially for the price. If you can find the Anniversary series cigars (although they are on the pricey side and typically hard to find) - those are a VERY nice cigar.

Perdomo's are a nice smoke as well. Especially for the price! There are mixed reviews on the Edicion de Silvio's - but I'm a fan.

Another one in that same price range are the Sancho Panza - the double maduro is a very nice cigar.

The key to this whole thing - sample cigars and find what your tastes are. Everyone enjoys different smokes for different reasons. I think half the fun of smoking cigars is experimenting!!! (although I don't enjoy tossing a cigar because it just wasn't meant for me) It's great to find a new smoke you really enjoy...

And keeping a journal is a GREAT way to record your experiences, especially while you're new at it. After a while you start to see the pattern of likes and dislikes (wrappers, sizes, brands, etc.) There are even pre-printed books out there (Cigar Journal ,) There was actually a thread started by Roham a while back about Cigar Band Journals:

http://www.cigarsmokers.com/t495-cig...d-journal.html